WE HAVE SPROUTING

Napa cabbage.  Getting bigger.

Also looks like my "centering skills" were lacking when I planted a few of the seedlings.

Did a little better job of spacing these out.  Here are the collards.  Doing nicely.  We have had a freeze so they should be sweeter now when we do get to harvest them.

And here are the two garlic beds.  Wait!  What are those?  Do you see them there?

Maybe this will help...

We have sprouting!!

Yep, both beds have little green shoots coming up through the straw.  I guess this means good things are happening underground.  I checked the blog entry for last year and it was the 13th when they came up.  I got them in the ground a few days later than last year so we are right on track.

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And for today's Thanksgiving yucky foods...

Anyone up for a wonderful treat called

"Frozen Jellied Turkey Vegetable Salad"?

Anyone?

FIRST FREEZE UPDATE

Well it was our first (and one of the earliest on record) freeze of the season.

The house pipes were fine.  The lowest temp at the farm was 29 and pipes are usually good down to mid 20's before we need to worry.  Usually, in January or so, we drain the pipes and blow the water out until danger of hard freezing is over.  

The grass is officially dormant.  It hasn't even grown.  This is two weeks post mowing.

Pineapple

The pineapple survived, yay!  Good thing too, I forgot to cover them.  But they are on the porch, in the corner up against the wall so were probably shielded from the harshest blowing cold. 

Texas lilac in the freeze

This is the Texas Lilac (Vitex) next to the porch.  They all look like this but they are fine, they are hardy down to near zero.  Just going dormant now for Winter.  I'll prune them next year after the last frost and we'll get some beautiful new growth.

Citrus trees

Here are the citrus trees and they did fine as well.  The third one is just out of camera shot.  All three made it.  The first real hard freeze forecast though and I may bring them back into town to protect them until Spring when I can get them in the ground.

Raised beds

The grass is starting to turn the same color as the straw mulch on the fruit tree beds, ha.

Banana trees

These took it the hardest.  They are the two banana trees.  I never planted them because I was letting them get bigger before planting them and of course finding the right spot for them.  I didn't cover them and the blowing wind hurt the leaves.  The plants themselves seem fine so hopefully they will bounce back.  The "parents" these came off of (my coworker gave these to us last year from her parents' plants) freeze every year and come right back and still produce bananas.  Fingers crossed they make it!

Checked the forecast for the next 10 days and we're good for no freezing so nothing to worry about..yet.

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Today's Thanksgiving yucky foods mention...

What about this?  This was touted as a wonderful side dish to serve at Thanksgiving that would have all your guests raving.  Yeah, we think "raving" is probably not the right word.  

Ham and Hollandaise sauce covered bananas? 

Would you dare?

SUNDAY UPDATE

It's raining today.  Supposed to be a rainy week ahead too.

Crazy looking clouds. I believe these are called "mammatus clouds".  

It's been a weekend of getting things ready for Thanksgiving.  

No, we're NOT having Spam birds, ha!  Found some hilarious vintage Thanksgiving food horrors, will share one each day this week.

So what about it, do Spam birds sound good? 

KITTEN PRINTER FRIDAY FUNNY

OK we're probably sure you can figure out why we posted this, because it's friggin' adorable and of course we love cats!  We'll take one of each please!  What cuties.  Glad she didn't have four, that fourth one might have been invisible, ha!

Hope you are having a good week.  Our weather is still cool, we got down into the upper 20's two nights in a row.  Now it's slowly warming up.  Supposed to be 70 on Sunday.  But next week we may have storms and heavy rain on Thanksgiving Day.  

Speaking of, we can't believe next week is already time for Thanksgiving?!?  Are we ready, um, yeah sure, aren't you? 

CLIMBING ROSE PERGOLA INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Every Thursday we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm. Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and someday, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy!

I've always liked climbing roses.  My Grandmother used to have them in Oklahoma and she had something like this, though not NEARLY this big and nice.  But it was pretty and unique and made an impression on me.  When I saw this picture, it was something that reminded me of what she had.  

Sure wish I had pictures of hers.  I remember it was built in the remains of an old shed, sort of just a frame building without any siding or roof and she always seemed to have these red and pink roses all over it.  Not sure what climbing rose variety works in our climate and soil but this is a project I'd like to try someday when I have the time. 

Be inspired!

CANDY CORN BUST AND SNOW

OK, this made us laugh...

Candy Corn clearance 

Was at the store and saw the clearance section.  It was filled with leftover Candy Corn!

It was every variety and package style and brand, on clearance.  I think they were about 50 cents each or less but I'm not sure if they sold any even at that price.  I guess if you DO like it, that would have been a bargain too good to pass up.  Otherwise, it just goes down as bad Halloween candy.

Yesterday, 2nd Family texted and said it was SNOWING at the farm!

Stock animation NOT actual footage, LOL

 The ambient air temperature was in the upper 30's so nothing stuck.  Here in town there were flurries all over as well.  "J" said it was quite the sight to see out there.  It is now the earliest "snow" ever recorded in Houston's history.  Not sure how this portends for the rest of our Fall and upcoming Winter.  

Last night it got to 30.  We hope the farm is OK.  I didn't really prep the house for freezing but from what I've read, pipes are OK in these short bursts of freezing temps.  I did cover the citrus on the porch so we'll have to see how it all makes it. 

This Sunday it's supposed to be 70 degrees!!

MULCH, FRUIT TREES AND NACHOS

 It was a cold and damp weekend.  On the way out, I stopped at one of my favorite places, Tractor Supply, and picked up some EZ Straw.  

EZ Straw

This is the mulch we've used the last few years on the garden.  The stuff has been wonderful and this year we decided to use it on the fruit trees.  

Mulching the raised beds

Going to use it more to just keep down the weeds and keep them moist in the Winter since we don't go out there as often when it's cold.

Raised bed orchard

I did all eight trees.  It was windy but the sprinkling rain helped keep it from blowing around.  Hey, you work with what nature gives you, ha.  They all look much better and now we're good until next Spring.  I still need to edge around the beds but it was just too wet with some standing water and that's a mess to edge in.  I can do that in a week or two, no hurry.  It's definitely not growing that much and if we have a freeze this week, then that's it for the season.

And finally, here is some gratuitous food:

We had some leftover beef, a bag of tortilla chips, shredded cheese and pico de gallo (tomatoes, onions, jalapeño).  That seemed like a meal, ha.

Nachos

We chopped up the meat, put everything randomly layered together in a baking dish and heated it in the oven until melted and bubbly.  Then we just dished it out and topped it with some fresh cilantro.  Super easy and you can do it with just about any meat (chicken, pork, beef), any kind of cheese, and whatever vegetables or seasonings you like.  It certainly makes for a quick and filling dish.

We'll see if this week brings our first freeze. If it does it will be slightly early.  We'll see.

THE WEEKEND SO FAR

It's been a cold and damp weekend.  As I posted yesterday, I went to the farm solo.

First up, of course we need to thank all our Veterans and their families (let's not forget the families) for their sacrifice in service to our country.

It never got above the 40's.  When I got there it was 44, the highest it got was 48 when I left.  Even inside the house it was 50's.

It was like this all day.  Cloudy, sprinkling rain, windy, standing water.  It was not a good day to get a lot done but I did at least manage to get to a couple of projects.  More on that this week.  I didn't have to mow so that was good.  I could have edged but there was some standing water and that makes a mess.

Here is the garden, growing nicely.  These are the Chinese cabbages, they are looking really good.

And these are the collard greens.  Getting really big with a lot of new growth.  Should be harvesting our first in a few more weeks.

There is some color!  This was a lantana that I've basically ignored because it's in a flower bed I was thinking of redoing.  I might have to just work around it.  Nature found a way, ha. 

On the way out, I stopped at a store to pick up some supplies and found these.  They are wooden tags designed to hang on the wall or cabinet pull or even a doorknob.  Not sure where we will put them but they were cute and I couldn't resist a sale. 

WET AND CHILLY WEEKEND

I'm at the farm this morning.  2nd Man is staying in town because he has to work.  It's a drizzly, windy, cold day.  Not much I can do at the farm either, cold inside the house and wet and cold outside.  

Our first freeze of the season is coming mid-week.  It's not a plant or pipe worrying freeze though.  The "long range" forecast has us back to the upper 70's next week.  It's Houston, wait a few days and the weather will be completely different.  

As you can see it's drab and dreary today.  I'll water the plants on the porch, make sure anything that might be freeze sensitive is protected just in case do a few projects inside and then I'll head back into town this afternoon. 

  

More later this weekend. Hope yours is warmer and not quite as rainy!

HAPPY HORSE FRIDAY

Here is Artax, 2nd Family's horse, standing in her pasture.  I was pulling in the driveway and the sun was shining on her little patch of grass, some yellow wildflower ground-cover to stand on, and she looked as happy as could be.  Of course I had to have a picture so I parked the car on the road, jumped out and took a picture.

We are in for a big change in the the weather. Winter is coming (for us anyway, ha).  More on that later.